Poor ground conditions on a sewage tunnel contract in Singapore have so far cost local contractor, SembCorp Engineers & Constructors, US$13M.
SembCorp recently confirmed that it was necessary to carry out additional work during construction of the tunnels at Kranji, part of Singapore’s massive US$5bn deep tunnel sewerage scheme.
Problems on this tunnel contract may affect how the company bids for future work. “I think we will refrain from taking on such projects in future,” SembCorp president and chief executive Wong Heang Fine said.
The firm said a review by an independent team of experts concluded that such complex ground conditions could not have been foreseen based on the available data.
Problems on another project, where SembCorp is facing losses of US$48.7M, has compounded the difficulties for the contractor.
“We will take this one-time write-off,” Wong Kok Siew, chairman of parent company SembCorp Industries (SCI), said. “Then we will move forward, and we can grow next year.”
